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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $100.00| Rating: 7

Pros:

good finish, small & lightweight

Cons:

so-so performance

a decent kit lens. has a beautiful finish & comes with a hood.
a so-so performer, but it's ok as a kit lens. sits mostly in the drybox though.. almost never used it :-P

Ocean

Registered: September 2009Posts: 21

Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS SEL1855 review by Ocean

Review Date: 12/30/2012

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 7

Pros:

solid, good hood, sharp in black version

Cons:

large

i experienced with silver and black Versions - the black ones are by far better - optical (but only with Nex 7) - maybe selected.
it's not very small but I like it a lot more then my new 16-50 mm pancake.
After 18 months it is better then expected and with the new AF from Nex 6 - most pics are now sharp.
Not so good with Nex 5n or Nex 3.

brugj03

Registered: November 2012Posts: 11

Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS SEL1855 review by brugj03

Review Date: 11/4/2012

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $200.00| Rating: 8

Pros:

Very nice aluminium design, versatile also for video and good OSS

Cons:

Soft, mediocre contrast,slow

I got this lense as a kit lens with my body and kept it for video and OSS functionality.

This is my least used nex lens, it`s practical for video shooting but foto`s show the apparent flaws of this nice kit lens.
It`s as slow as any kit so nothing special there.

It`s just not sharp enough to resolve the resolution of the nex 7 or any other nex.
It still makes nice pictures if you are not that critical and print small. The colors are nice and natural. The contrast is just good enough but nothing special.

If you postprocess good results can be had with this lens.

I use it mainly for video because of the excellent OSS which gives a steady picture, also the resolution is not such a problem with video.

As a kit lens it`s better than average and i would recommend it.

It looks and feels sturdy with it`s all aluminium barrel. It also seems a lot better made than most kit lenses.

Beachrider

Registered: December 2010Posts: 22

Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS SEL1855 review by Beachrider

Review Date: 4/11/2012

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $160.00| Rating: 8

Nice starter lens for NEX. CDAF functions VASTLY improve after NEX3 firmware 5.0 (different numbers for each NEX). Still not for fast-action photos, though. Good for basic NEX video, too.

Rover

Registered: July 2008Posts: 13

Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS SEL1855 review by Rover

Review Date: 12/9/2011

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 8

Pros:

fast and silent AF, decently sharp, great build quality

Cons:

poor (but better than average in class) aperture, somewhat awkward to MF, visible distortion at 18mm

Today even the kit lenses are (mostly) decent performers and this lens is no exception. My wife has it on her NEX-3 but I'm using this camera sometimes as well - enough to make an impression.

The build quality is very good; the only (minor) reasons that prevent me from giving it a "10" are the slightly wobbly plastic inner tube, the slippery metal of the rings that sometimes makes them difficult to turn (esp. when wearing gloves), and lack of distance scale (which, coupled with the fact that manual focusing can only be engaged from the depth of the menus, makes MF rather awkward). The AF is fast, silent and accurate - not something we're used to getting from Sony.

Optical quality is quite fine. Barrel distortion is visible at the wide end and there's some CA. The sharpness is very decent overall, especially stopped down to f/6.3 or thereabouts on the wide end where the lens is insanely sharp. f/3.5-5.6 aperture is nothing to write home about although this lens is better than most here because it maintains the f/4.5 aperture up to about 48 or 50 mm - not bad! To a point this can be offset by the ability of the NEX to go to very high ISO levels.